Delivery Co. has cut fleet mileage

Optrak Distribution Software has announced that Delivery Co. has cut fleet mileage by 25% and achieved major cost and environmental savings with Optraks vehicle routing software. Delivery Co. has adopted Optrak for an enterprise wide deployment and in the process implemented best practice, eliminated duplication, and improved overall resource utilisation.

The Delivery Co. is the UK logistics operating company for the PaperlinX Group providing a dedicated in-house logistics service for its three UK Merchants. The Optrak vehicle routing software has been used on a consolidation and rationalisation project for The Robert Horne Group, The Paper Company and the Howard Smith Paper Group.

John Ball, Director, Delivery Co. said, The Robert Horne Group had been successfully using Optrak for 14 years and this experience and the established relationship with Optrak was the perfect base for the Delivery Co. development. Optrak has enabled us to reduce our vehicle fleet size by 10%, make significant cost savings and substantially reduce our impact on the environment. Optrak is an essential element in the regional consolidation process and has been integral to the success of the Delivery Co. operations.

Delivery Co. uses the Optrak software to analyse and determine the most efficient way to organise and rationalise fleet and depot operations in each region that it operates in. This involves looking at different options for the fleet mix and configuration, how many drivers are needed, what shifts they will need to work, etc. Delivery Co. has found that Optrak gives accurate and reliable information on what is needed to meet the companys delivery requirements. It also shows the potential cost reduction for any given set of customers and orders.

Delivery Co. has a mix of single and double deck vehicles. Optrak intelligently maximises fleet utilisation as it automatically observes weight and volumes restrictions per vehicle. It also ensures that the right vehicle is selected for each order which is necessary as plastic products can only be delivered on a particular vehicle type.

East Anglia was the first region to be reviewed by Delivery Co. Delivery Co. centralised operations into one main site at Ipswich with one satellite operation to serve East Anglia. Delivery Co. was able to prove with Optrak that the new operation would lead to significant savings. Consolidation and more efficient routing of deliveries in the region has resulted in the elimination of 10,000 individual deliveries in year one and a reduction in the combined fleet by 6 vehicles.

Delivery Co. benchmarks a number of KPIs before each Optrak implementation. This has shown a consistent reduction in the vehicle fleet size of at least 10% with resources being redeployed within the organisation. Other savings have also been made through rationalising the number of distribution sites.

The consolidation and optimisation of operations in the UK has also delivered significant environmental benefits. The creation of Delivery Co. has reduced the kilometres travelled by its combined delivery fleet by 25% thereby reducing its CO2 emissions by some 200 tons per year in the East Anglia region alone and it is estimated that the completed national roll-out will achieve a reduction in excess of 2500 tonnes per year.

Ball emphasised, The consolidation process and the use of dynamic scheduling have had a dramatic impact in reducing not only the number of vehicles used but also the daily kilometres those vehicles travel. Optrak also enables Delivery Co. to achieve a reduction in energy usage which demonstrates our long term commitment to the environment.

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